Tag Archives: hbo

I swear, I think or write about something and suddenly it’s everywhere!

Take My Money, HBO is a new website where you can type in a dollar amount that you would be willing to pay per month for a standalone subscription service for HBO Go. You have to have a Twitter account for it to work.

The network has already responded saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, dream on suckahs! They say they would lose money this way.

Maybe, maybe not. You have to look at how many people would cancel their cable subscription and opt for HBO Go (which, presumably, would cost far less than the HBO bundle you get with cable) versus how many new people would pick up the Internet only option.

Me? I’d actually be willing to pay up to $20 a month for it. Quality programming with a great back catalog? That’s worth paying close to what we pay Netflix in our house.

Sadly, HBO just isn’t hip enough.

Speaking of hip enough, I keep tossing around the idea about creating a Twitter to coincide with my blog- mostly so I can post stuff I don’t really want to expound on but still want to share.

The TV season is winding down with a lot of shows having already aired their Season Finales. Even shows like Game of Thrones is finishing. I guess that means I’ll have more time to check out shows I may have missed in the past few years and also checking out other shows going on now that just haven’t been on my radar.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, there were a couple articles on the web a few weeks back about HBO Go. I think it’s pretty obvious that I fall in the camp that believes HBO would be smart to turn this service into an exclusive subscription model without customers having to be required to pay for regular HBO service. The fact that HBO stands so smugly and makes remarks about how cord cutting is just a fad just points out how deluded they are. It’s a fact that GoT is a highly pirated show. Cord cutting and it’s actuality aside, people just don’t have money for frivolous things like adding on to their cable service for channels like HBO. Yet GoT is now a part of the cultural dialog and no one wants to miss out on it. Its a show that appeals to long time fantasy freaks like myself, but maintains appeal for the normies to develop a following as well. And, of course, we’re an instant gratification culture; why wait a year after the show has aired to get it on DVD?

Faboy.com has asked whose fault is the piracy? In their article they do mention that HBO’s president can’t very well say something like, “yes, we would be able to reach a larger audience. This streaming video thing is something we want to be on board with” as this will alienate the cable companies. I also agree with their statement that HBO needs to see the epic number of piraters as potential customers as these people will most likely pay to watch their content. I’m one of those people. I could easily pirate any show I watch through Hulu or Amazon Instant Video, but I don’t.

The fact that I don’t leads me to disagree with the flip side of the argument that creative freedom isn’t free and therefore if we want quality shows that require a large budget we should subscribe to cable and networks like HBO. Granted, I don’t know all the ins and outs of funding for TV shows and TV stations. However, I should think that opening up HBO Go to a wider audience will certainly help fund the expensive shows we like to watch. They get money and less pirating. Win-win situation, no?

My home TV and movie watching experience came even closer to being perfect yesterday (now if only HBO Go would allow people to pay to subscribe without having to have cable).

Amazon.com very quietly added their widget to the PS3 to keep Netflix and Hulu Plus company. It’s awesome because now I can supplement the shows I can’t get through Hulu and don’t want to wait until it’s available on Netflix by purchasing season passes for shows I can’t live without. I’ve actually been doing this ever since my husband and I bought an internet ready TV, but there were a couple drawback. The major one was that the Amazon Instant Videos were only watchable through a weird Yahoo! widget on a weird and random Yahoo! menu – separate from the rest of the Internet ready content Samsung provides. The second is an issue that was totally central to my house; our TV isn’t hooked up to the surround sound – the PS3, however, is.

From the little that I played around with the new app it looks like the picture quality is improved, and for me the sound will definitely improve.

I don’t always like what Amazon does (as a Librarian I have issues with the way they let Libraries lend their Kindle books), but this is really awesome.

Again…now if only HBO would realize where a lot of their viewing base is….